In an agreement filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia last month, the companies agreed to pay $125,000 by Feb. 27 and the remaining balance due by May 1.
A federal court has given coal companies owned by U.S. Sen. Jim Justice until May 1 to pay fines they owe or face contempt.
Numerous Justice-owned coal companies owe a total of more than $400,000 in delinquent mine safety penalties.
In an agreement filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia last month, the companies agreed to pay $125,000 by Feb. 27 and the remaining balance due by May 1.
Under the court agreement, if Tams Management and Frontier Coal fail to pay the amount owed by May 1, they will be held in contempt and fined $1,000 a day by Senior Judge Michael Urbanski.
The companies may be subject to additional sanctions, including a debt collection surcharge, civil fines, civil confinement of officers – or jail time – and receivership.
The court ordered Justice to pay the debt, cite an exemption or appear in court in Harrisonburg, Virginia, on March 28.
Tams Management, Frontier Coal and Bluestone Coal had originally agreed to pay more than $5 million in Mine Safety and Health Administration civil penalties by March 1, 2024, but they missed that deadline.
The complaint alleges that Chemours failed to meet the requirements of a 2023 agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to address water pollution from its Washington Works plant near Parkersburg.
The West Virginia Rivers Coalition has filed a federal lawsuit against Chemours over water pollution in Wood County.
The group filed its lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
The EPA found that the plant discharged PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, into the Ohio River in quantities that exceeded what was allowed by permit.
The West Virginia Rivers Coalition seeks immediate enforcement of the 2023 agreement and civil penalties of $66,000 per day per violation, as well as court costs.
In a statement, Chemours says it is committed to being a good neighbor.
Union Carbide applied to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection for a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit for its Massey Railyard.
Union Carbide has sought a water pollution permit for a facility in South Charleston where the company has been in federal court for several years.
Union Carbide applied to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection for a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit for its Massey Railyard.
The application, dated June 26, was filed in U.S. District Court in Charleston in an ongoing lawsuit against Union Carbide by the Courtland Co., which owns property in South Charleston.
Courtland first filed suit against Union Carbide in 2018 over water pollution from the Massey Railyard and the adjacent Filmont Landfill. In its latest filing, Union Carbide indicated it also will submit a permit application for the landfill.
Senior Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. ruled last year that the landfill was an illegal open dump and that Union Carbide violated the Clean Water Act by not seeking permits under federal law.
Union Carbide’s application for Massey has been submitted to WVDEP, and the company plans to submit another one for Filmont. At some point, the state agency will publish the applications and accept public comment.
The eight-acre Massey site discharges an average of nearly 15,000 gallons of runoff per day, according to the application. The application includes a long list of pollutants. Union Carbide checked a box that says “all not present.”
It also asks whether the application is for a “new facility.” Union Carbide checked “yes,” even though the railyard has been active since the 1960s. Union Carbide, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical, and WVDEP did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
As part of the settlement, Norfolk Southern is required to make safety improvements that were in a bill the Senate Commerce Committee approved last year.
As part of the settlement, Norfolk Southern is required to make safety improvements that were in a bill the Senate Commerce Committee approved last year.
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who voted against the bill in committee, said she didn’t expect it to become law. However, she said lawmakers could still make changes.
“But I’m not saying there aren’t improvements still to be made, because there certainly are,” she said. “So we’re going to look and see how this impacts that bill and then move on.”
The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to release its report on the derailment next month.
An ongoing case in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia will determine whether Union Carbide, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical, will pay civil penalties.
This is a developing story and may be updated. The original story misstated the number of National Priorities List sites in West Virginia. It has been corrected.
An ongoing case in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia will determine whether Union Carbide, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical, will pay civil penalties.
Courtland, a property owner that sued Union Carbide, is seeking a $1.4 billion civil penalty against the company over pollution resulting from the dumping of toxic material. Courtland also has sought an injunction from the court that would put the cleanup under EPA supervision.
The Courtland and Union Carbide Filmont sites are directly beside Davis Creek and close to where the creek enters the Kanawha River.
Illustration by Eric Douglas
Last year, Senior Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. found that the site, called the Filmont landfill, was an illegal open dump under federal law. He also found that Union Carbide violated the Clean Water Act by failing to seek a stormwater discharge permit for the facility.
Copenhaver dismissed two of Courtland’s four lawsuits against Union Carbide.
Last month, Union Carbide asked Copenhaver to reject the civil penalty and the injunction.
The company has said it’s pursuing a voluntary remediation with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection that would achieve the same goals as an EPA-supervised cleanup and would take less time to complete.
Pat McGinley, a law professor at West Virginia University who specializes in environmental law, said the Superfund listing could affect the outcome of the case.
“It brings EPA into the process of determining the appropriate remedial action,” he said, “obviously not what the defendant prefers.”
In a court filing dated April 30, Mike Callaghan, an attorney for Courtland, noted that the Superfund listing did not place the Filmont site on the National Priorities List. That list currently includes 1,340 of the most polluted sites across the country. Eleven are in West Virginia.
“Counsel is further exploring the significance of this site being listed under EPA’s Superfund Site Information and the impacts that may have on this litigation,” Callaghan wrote.
Southern Coal did not comply with a September court order to repay a Charleston insurance company more than $500,000 in workers’ compensation claims.
A federal judge has held a coal company owned by the Justice family in civil contempt.
Southern Coal did not comply with a September court order to repay a Charleston insurance company more than $500,000 in workers’ compensation claims.
So Judge Elizabeth Dillon of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, earlier this week gave Southern Coal seven days to repay BrickStreet Mutual Insurance.
After that, Southern Coal will have to pay a penalty of $2,500 for every day it does not comply.
“It is well-settled that the imposition of a daily fine to coerce a party into complying with a court’s order is within a district court’s civil contempt power,” Dillon’s ruling said. “As requested by BrickStreet, and there being no opposition by Southern Coal, the court will also order Southern Coal to pay BrickStreet’s reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in pursuing this remedy.”
Southern Coal is one of the numerous companies the Justice Family owns. Southern Coal argued that it was unable to comply with the court’s September order because the company is insolvent.
Dillon noted in her ruling that Southern Coal had provided no evidence that it had no ability to repay BrickStreet other than simply saying it couldn’t.
“Here, Southern Coal has not affirmatively produced evidence that it is presently unable to comply with the Final Order other than the conclusory assertion that it has ‘no present ability to pay and comply with the Court’s judgment order,’” Dillon’s ruling said.
Justice’s companies are involved in multiple active cases in the Western District of Virginia both as plaintiffs and defendants. The companies owe creditors tens of millions of dollars. The lenders have sought to seize property, including resorts and a helicopter.
Southern Coal and many other Justice family companies are headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia. Gov. Jim Justice is a Republican U.S. Senate candidate this year.
